Choir of Royal Holloway

The Choir of Royal Holloway is considered to be one of the finest mixed-voice collegiate choirs in Britain. Their recordings on the Hyperion label have attracted top reviews from all major music publications. Equally at home on the concert platform, the choir gives 50-plus concerts a year with a particular specialism in music from the late renaissance and contemporary music, especially from the Baltic states. The choir also regularly collaborates with other ensembles such as the King’s Singers, London Mozart Players and Fretwork, and in 2019 toured with the Britten Sinfonia with Thomas Adès in performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Created at the time of the foundation of Royal Holloway in 1886, the choir was originally only for women’s voices. The mixed choir now comprises 24 Choral Scholars which are generously funded as a part of the Santander Universities Scheme. These choral scholars undertake a busy schedule of weekly services, as well as concerts, international tours,
recordings and broadcasts. In addition to these, Royal Holloway is also the only university that still maintains a tradition of daily sung morning services

The choir has toured the USA, Canada, most European countries, appeared in Beijing and has been broadcast on regional and national radio and television all over the world. In the UK, BBC Radio 3 has produced live broadcasts of both services and concerts.

The choir has been fortunate to sing at a number of high-profile events including the 2014 Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall (live on BBC TV), an awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace and performing a new John Rutter commission for the Magna Carta 800th anniversary in front of HM The Queen, the Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury.

Recent festival engagements have included the Spitalfields Festival, the Three Choirs Festival, the Windsor and Swaledale festivals, the Cheltenham Festival (with Dame Felicity Lott and the City of London Sinfonia), and residencies at the Presteigne Festival in 2011, 2015 and 2018. Recent recording projects have included a collaboration with Ola Gjeilo (Winter Songs: DECCA), which topped the UK and US classical chart, and forthcoming releases include music by Ben Parry, Joanna Marsh and James Francis Brown.